We present data about the higher education from a review of the national context to particularize the higher education in health and nursing and teaching trends in this field. We systematize data on education in Lula's government, noting the continuity and deepening of politics for higher education in Brazil, especially in regard to privatization and the transfer of resources to the private sector. In higher education in health we found that the official politic points to the adoption of innovative/active methodologies; the methodology of problematization as the only way to propose innovative curricular changes and acceptable when you receive the state incentive for the initiatives of change that are also observed in the experiences of curricular reforms of Brazilian nursing.